Henderson County, Tennessee

Henderson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Lexington
Year Organized: 1821
Square Miles: 520

Court House:

17 Monroe Avenue, Suite 4
County Courthouse
Lexington, TN 38351-2183

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of James Henderson (fl.1815), commander of Tennessee troops preceding the Battle of New Orleans, and staff officer to Andrew Jackson in the Creek and Natchez campaigns.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Henderson County

Created 1821 from Indian lands; named in honor of James Henderson (fl.1815), commander of Tennessee troops preceding the Battle of New Orleans, and staff officer to Andrew Jackson in the Creek and Natchez campaigns.

Henderson County was formed in 1821 from Indian lands
(Public Acts of Tennessee 1821, Chapter 32).

There was a fire at the Henderson County courthouse in 1896.

The Tennessee General Assembly created Henderson County on November 7, 1821, and named it in honor of Colonel James Henderson, who served under Andrew Jackson and commanded Tennessee troops at the battle of New Orleans. Several of the county's early settlers served under Henderson's command during the War of 1812 and during the Natchez and Creek Indian campaigns. The original area contained the present county, a large part of Chester County, and smaller portions of Decatur and Madison Counties. Major John Troxell Harmon surveyed the county seat of Lexington in 1822 and laid out the town facing northeast, making it crosswise to traditional orientation. At 720 feet, Lexington is also highest in elevation of all the West Tennessee county seats.

The Tennessee Highland Ridge (also known locally and historically as Feather Ridge and Purdy Range) divided the county into two distinct cultural and geographical sections. All water falling east of the ridge flows to the Tennessee River, while water west of the ridge flows to the Mississippi River. The Tennessee Highland Ridge enters Henderson County at the Chester County line near Laster, separates the Middlefork and Palestine communities, and follows a northerly pattern west of Lexington across Sand Ridge between Bargerton and Union Cross before entering Carroll County. Most of the plantation and slave-owning settlers of the county lived west of the ridge, where the ground was less hilly. The land east of the ridge becomes increasingly hilly toward the Tennessee River and was largely unsuitable for plantation farming.

Find more from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: HENDERSON COUNTY

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 526 square miles (1,362 km²), of which, 520 square miles (1,347 km²) of it is land and 6 square miles (15 km²) of it (1.12%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Carroll County (north)
Decatur County (east)
Hardin County (southeast)
Chester County (southwest)
Madison County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Lexington (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Parkers Crossroads	city	Incorporated Area
- Sardis	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."